


Take Me, or Leave Me

by betheflame, rinnwrites



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Coming Out, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Homecoming, POV Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), POV Carol Danvers, homophobic parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22762123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinnwrites/pseuds/rinnwrites
Summary: A co-creation for the Marvel Rare Pair Bang 2020:Carol Danvers and Valerie "Valkyrie" Rhodeshateeach other. Which is inconvenient when they're put together on a school project.
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Carol Danvers, Clint Barton/Peggy Carter, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Thor
Comments: 9
Kudos: 43
Collections: Marvel Rare Pair Bang 2019





	Take Me, or Leave Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hellloooo! We hope you enjoy our wee story. Flame would like to thank Juulna for the beta, and for literally everyone else on discord (particularly ko and marie) for listening to me wail about this one when it just wasn't behaving. I've loved working with rinn and I hope we can again soon! rinn would like to thank the amazingly talented Flame for taking the most minimal prompt and creating this absolutely beautiful piece of writing, and the lovely humans on the Winteriron discord for being supportive and wonderful in every way!
> 
> __

“Are you serious right now?” James “Rhodey” Rhodes stared at his long-time best friend Carol Danvers during the second week of school. “My sister is your partner. Fury was actually insane enough to assign the two of you together? You two are going to kill each other.”

Carol snorted. “Not if she just does her work in an orderly fashion-”

Rhodey leaned back in his chair and howled. “Val has done zero things in her life that you would classify as ‘orderly’. Oh, Jesus, I gotta tell Tones. He’s gonna want to start a betting ring on which one of you dies first.”

As Rhodey pulled his phone out of his pocket, Carol dove for it. “Do not tell Tony,” she growled. “He’s only going to-”

“Only going to what?” The boy himself plopped down next to Rhodey and promptly stole one of Carol’s fries.

“You know the AP physics project thing they’ve been banging on about in morning announcements?” Rhodey replied, ignoring the daggers flying out of Carol’s eyes. “Well, Fury put Carol and Val together.”

Tony blinked a few times. “Carol. Our queen of all things done in proper order has been paired with the chaos monster that is your sister for an activity with scholarship money on the line?” His voice raised a few octaves towards the end and he tapped a few buttons on his phone. “Oh, man, I have got to tell Buckaroo.”

Carol thunked her head on the cafeteria table and groaned. “My pain is not your amusement.”

“Well, we’re a few months off from seeing Rogers and Odinson in their Speedos and Buck’s ACL tear means I have no eye candy on the football team, so, actually, this slots nicely into my need for entertainment,” Tony replied as Rhodey continued laughing.

There was a beat of silence before Tony gently tapped Carol on the forehead and she raised her eyes to his. “Sweetheart, you know she’s smart enough to keep up with you, and you two will dance circles around everyone else. It’ll be fine.”

Carol glared. “I liked you better before James calmed you down. This sweet, caring side is a fucking mind trip.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to let the ‘ol boyfriend know your complaint,” Tony replied smoothly. “Now, Honeybear, quick question about this rock band Steve tells me he’s dragging me into. Your idea?”

Carol tuned the boys out as she continued to meditate on the forthcoming nightmare that was this project.

She had known Valerie “Valkyrie” Rhodes since she and Rhodey and Tony had all been in 3rd grade. That was the year Val got held back a grade and was dumped into Carol’s happy little friend circle. Carol, Rhodey, and Tony all worked fine. Rhodey and Tony got into mischief, Carol bailed them out. Carol needed someone to play soccer with on the playground and Rhodey was up to the task, making sure that no one ignored Carol just because she was a girl, while Tony called out vague encouragements from the sidelines despite being completely distracted by whatever he was inventing that week.

The insertion of Val had upended Carol’s neat little world and she’d been trying to keep it back in order for ten years.

This project was not going to help matters.

“Earth to Carol,” Tony snapped his fingers in front of her face.

“Sorry, Tones,” she shook her head, as though to dust off the gathering cobwebs of reminiscences. “What?”

The boy’s smile was a little too soft for Carol’s liking - sarcasm she could take, kindness she could deal with, but Tony’s pity? Hard pass. “I was saying that Build a Buck is out with Rogers and Thor tonight - some sort of CrossFit something or another that I will be avoiding with the enthusiasm of Luke taking out the Death Star - and Ana is making that balsamic meatloaf thing you like. Yeah?”

She nodded swiftly. Home wasn’t Carol’s favorite place anyway, not since she came out. “Yeah. I’ll be over after practice.”

“I’ll pick up extra Gatorade,” Tony nodded.

“Bullshit,” Rhodey replied as he started to pack up his stuff. “You’ll text Jarvis or order some from some Amazon drone. You haven’t been to a grocery store since 2012.”

“We just said the same thing,” Tony’s eyes twinkled. He addressed Carol. “Shall we away, Granger?”

“Absolutely, Potter,” she grinned.

“I am not Weasley in this scenario,” Rhodey protested, for at least the nine thousandth time since they first all read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and was summarily ignored, the way he was every time.

* * *

Across the cafeteria, Val was having a similar conversation with her best friend Bruce Banner.

“I don’t like girls,” Val growled as she stabbed her spaghetti with a spork.

Bruce quirked an eyebrow. “That’s not what you told me last night when we were watching Riverdale.”

She flipped him off and shoved the pasta into her mouth, all while drumming the rhythm to the Fibonacci Sequence into her thigh with her free hand. Numbers soothed her. When she finished chewing, she continued. “I don’t like working with girls. I do quite enjoy fucking them.”

“You know,” Bruce rolled his eyes. “This shock factor you go for all the time, with the language and the crazy makeup and the whatnot? You can always not do that.”

“Oh, but why would I stop, Brucie Bear, when it all turns you such a nice shade of puce?”

He rolled his eyes, but she knew he loved her, just like she loved him. Bruce was younger than she was by about three years, but they had met when they were both in 5th grade. Bruce had skipped straight from 1st to 5th grade - a terrible decision he had still not quite forgiven his parents for - and she was the oldest in their class after being held back two years previous. They bonded quickly over their mutual love of numbers and their outcast status.

Since then, Bruce had branched out in terms of friends and was generally loved by their entire school. Some of the stuff he and Stark had come up with for the various science fairs, for example, were the stuff of legends. He was quick to anger, for sure, but most folks had learned his triggers. You could never make fun of Val, for example, or say racist things about her and Rhodey. Anti-Semitism towards James Barnes would get you a roar pretty quickly, and so would being an anti-vaxxer or saying that climate change wasn’t real. Other than that? He was a big softie.

Val, on the other hand, was known as the surly Rhodes sibling. She did not suffer fools and existed largely on the outside of most of the friend circles, even though she flirted with most of them. She and Steve Rogers, for example, were the star artists of the school, even if their styles were diametrically opposed. Val was always up for anything at a party, which meant she always drew looks of judgement from Carol Danvers - the most straight-laced human at Granite Park High School.

Who she now had to work with.

“Val,” Bruce continued. “It’s twenty-five thousand dollars in scholarship money. GP can only put one team into the competition and you and Carol are absolutely the best physics students right now. Tony and I won two years ago, so we’re out, and no one else even comes close to your knowledge and grades. And, if I’m honest, both of your proposals are fascinating and I think they’ll blend pretty well.”

“I don’t need your logic right now, B,” she replied. “I need your anger.”

“Well, you’re not getting it,” Bruce said simply.

She growled again, and ate more of her lunch. They were silent for a few minutes before she spoke again. “It’s just that she’s so damn perfect. Perfect grades, perfect clothes, perfect everything and it makes me itch.”

“Well, getting into the Air Force Academy isn’t easy,” Bruce pointed out. “And she started talking about doing that, what, freshman year?”

“I just want to ruffle her,” Val continued and then caught Bruce’s smirk. “And not that way.”

Maybe in that way. Maybe if she learned to shut her mouth. Or do something useful with it other than order the rest of us around like she’s a captain or something.

“Sure.” Bruce said, his tone even and she knew she had lost any hope of him taking her side. “Val, be reasonable. She wants to research the jet propulsion of personalized aircraft at three different altitudes. You want to look into fighting styles in zero gravity. These are both wildly insane and complimentary. Just go play physics with her, you grumpy idiot. She may help you pay for college.”

Val snorted. “MIT is $48k a year.”

“Then she helps you pay for a semester,” Bruce said pragmatically. “Just deal with it.”

Val opened her mouth to argue more and then snapped it shut, knowing it was a lost cause with Bruce. Once he made up his mind about something, he was largely immovable and he had obviously deluded himself into thinking that this nightmare of working with Carol “Nary A Hair Out of Place” Danvers wasn’t going to kill her.

“Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll use her and then we never have to see each other again.”

“Except for the millions of times you’ll cross paths between now and graduation.”

“Not helping, Banner,” Val growled and Bruce smirked.

“Oh, I think I’m helping the exact right amount.”

* * *

“Valerie,” Carol steeled herself for a sarcastic comeback.

“Carolanne,” Val replied.

“That’s not my name,” Carol gritted her teeth.

“Forgive me,” Val drolled, in a tone that told Carol she was far from apologetic. “Seemed apple pie, white girl enough. What do you need?”

Carol took a deep breath, careful not to let her nostrils flare. She and Ana Jarvis had spent a long time talking the night before about how to approach Val and she was going to follow Ana’s instructions and advice if it killed her.

“We should schedule a meeting to discuss the competition,” Carol replied evenly. “Our practice schedules for soccer and field hockey largely coincide, and Rhodey told me you don’t have a job at the moment, so how does tomorrow afternoon work for you?”

Val’s face had been implacable through Carol’s small speech and remained so as she drolled, “works.”

Carol blinked. She was expecting far more resistance.

Val sighed dramatically. “Listen, I can’t say you’re my favorite person and I’m pretty sure being near me makes you afraid you’ll catch miscreant disease or something, but we’re stuck together here. They had to see something in our applications that made sense to them, and I need the money for MIT.”

“I don’t think I’ll catch miscreant from you,” Carol corrected. “I just worry you’re going to shiv me because you’ve accidentally misplaced your knife in your chaos.”

“Oh, I know just where my knives are at all times, Apple Pie.”

If Carol didn’t know better, that tone sounded like flirting.

But Carol knew better.

So it wasn’t.

Was it?

She took a deep breath. “If I’m looking at how altitude affect jet propulsion and you’re looking at zero gravity, our areas do actually work really well together.” There, Ana, see? I used my words and I complimented her.

Val nodded. “Brucie Bear offered his help in running the math.”

“Bucky asked if we could recruit Tony,” Carol smiled slightly. “Seems Buck’s getting a little tired of Tony ‘taking care’ of him.”

Val barked out a laugh. “Why is every boy I know a goddamn mother hen? Right, we can have one more on our assistant ranking. James already said no - he’s got a heavy semester already - but we could ask Rogers to do all the posters?”

Carol nodded. “Tomorrow afternoon?”

“I can come to your house?”

Carol panicked and the words ran away from her. “No, not mine, but Tony and Pepper’s? Or yours? Or even Buck’s? Not mine, mine wouldn’t be, no…”

Something flashed over Val’s face that looked like confused pity. “Tony’s got the lab space.”

Carol relaxed. “I’ll talk to Ana and make sure the backdoor is open.”

Val nodded and spun on her heel, marching away from Carol in that laconic way she had. Which afforded Carol an opportunity to stare a bit, since while also being an absolute disaster, Val had the best ass in six counties.

* * *

_WhatsApp: Carol & Tony_

_Tony: Ana wants to know if you’re sleeping here tonight._

_Carol: Yeah, just at mine for the weekly check in._

_Tony: Any defrost?_

_Carol: None. Mom asked again if I was sure it wasn’t a phase._

_Tony: Has she moved on from asking you about Steve?_

_Carol: Steve and Thor making out all over town has helped my case._

_Tony: Good to know my nausea is good for something._

_Carol: Listen, you’re gonna help me, right? You’re not going to be puppetmaster?_

_Tony: I have no idea what you are insinuating, Ms. Danvers._

_Carol: Anthony._

_Tony: I think you need to get laid, Danvers, and Val is conveniently already persuaded in that direction._

_Tony: I can talk to Pepper for you, but I think Nat might castrate me._

_Carol: I’m not fucking your older sister, Tony. For the last damn time._

_Carol: Also, Val’s seething hatred of me is a deterrent, perv ball._

_Tony: But one we can work with._

_Carol: No. You are going to help us win scholarship money and nothing else, or I’ll tell Buck on you._

_Tony: Carol._

_Carol: Tony._

_Carol: I fucking mean it, Stark._

_Tony: Fine._

_Carol: We have a schedule set out and I know the tests I need you and Bruce each to run, and Stevo agreed to do all the final graphics. We will all do our jobs and then this will end and I never have to talk to her again._

_Tony: You don’t have to talk to fuck._

_Carol: TONY. I SWEAR TO GOD._

_Tony: What if we did a threesome? God, having Howard and Max’s heads both explode on the same day would be worth it. Haven’t been with a girl since before Buck, ya know. Need to make sure I’ve still got it with all genitalia._

_Carol: You are disgusting and I’m not dignifying that with a response._

_Tony: Danvy, she’s smart and you’re fucking brilliant, and you have the Science Bros on your side. We have this in the bag._

_Carol: I have my second meeting with her tomorrow._

_Tony: If you would just let me pay for the academy, you know you’d be allowed to kill her._

_Carol: I’m doing this without you and without Max and murder looks bad on my record anyway._

_Tony: You’ve been a lot less fun since you turned lesbian._

_Carol: Because not liking dick is all that’s been keeping me from committing murder?_

_Tony: There’s the sass._

_Tony: Breathe, sis. You got this._

* * *

“I don’t hate it,” Carol said slowly and Val blinked at her in surprise.

“What don’t you hate?”

“The plan,” Carol said. “You said I was gonna hate it when the boys were here and I’m saying I don’t.”

“It’s not color coded,” Val snorted.

“I’m a lot more flexible than you give me credit for,” Carol gritted her teeth and replied.

“I bet you say that to all the boys,” Val retorted and went back to typing into her laptop.

“Girls,” Carol said quietly a few beats later.

Val’s hands froze. She did not - “Excuse me?”

“Girls,” Carol said with slightly more confidence. “I’m not into men.”

“Well, with the lack of talent at Granite Park, I can’t say I blame you,” Val replied, trying to keep her brain from spinning in a thousand different directions. Carol Danvers, daughter of Family Values Senator Extraordinaire, Maxwell Danvers, was a lesbian.

Rhodey probably knew and had never told her.

Oh, she and her brother were going to have words.

Carol snorted and caught Val’s eye and the two both dissolved into giggles.

They’d been working together for about two weeks and had yet to kill each other. Sure, the tension was thick a lot, but Val begrudgingly was beginning to understand why James thought Carol was such a good friend.

She was thorough - annoying so - but also a clear communicator. With their ideas and Carol’s organization, Val was confident they’d win the competition. Along with that, Carol had a dry sense of humor that Val had come to appreciate and watching her with Steve and Tony - who were people Val had only tolerated up to this point, but was also coming to enjoy - make Val realize that maybe Carol wasn’t a complete bitch, just… careful.

As one of the three women of color in their school, Val could respect careful. She could respect guarding yourself and making sure only certain people got certain pieces of you. And now with this revelation about the lesbian of it all… Maybe Carol Danvers wasn’t such a mystery after all.

* * *

“I am fine,” Bucky waved his crutch at Tony. “Will you stop fussing?”

“No,” Tony replied and proceeded to fluff the pillow behind Bucky’s back.

Bucky rolled his eyes as his phone pinged the WhatsApp chime.

_Carol: I can’t make it tonight._

Bucky’s eyebrow went up. Carol usually offered explanations when she backed out of things. This was… different.

“What’s up?”

Bucky handed his phone to Tony, who subsequently raised his eyebrow and sat down on the couch, arranging Bucky’s healing leg onto his lap.

“No explanation?”

Bucky shook his head and a smile spread across Tony’s face.

Bucky stared his boyfriend down. “What. What is that look?”

“Oh, our Carol has a crush,” Tony grinned.

“Bullshit,” Bucky said. “She hates Val.”

“You hated me,” Tony pointed out.

“I didn’t understand you,” Bucky corrected.

“Oh, and Val is an open book,” Tony smirked.

The pair held eyes for a minute. In the eight months they’d been together, Tony and Bucky had come a long way in learning how to read the other. Theirs was a love that was young, true, but it was solid and they knew each other.

“The world is about to change, ain’t it,” Bucky whispered.

“Carol’s certainly is,” Tony responded, equally as quietly.

“And we love her, and she’s ours, so ours changes, too,” Bucky replied.

Tony nodded and reached for Bucky’s hand. “We can’t tell Steve or Thor.”

Bucky’s laugh filled the room as he shook his head. “Those puppies can’t keep a secret if we paid them.”

“And Carol has no idea, so they certainly don’t get to, yet,” Tony confirmed.

“Love you,” Bucky smiled and reached for the Xbox controller. “Now, let me Witcher while you do your genius shit over there.”

Tony smirked and flipped open his tablet.

* * *

“WHAT IS YOUR DEAL,” Val yelled one afternoon as the pair were sitting in the Rhodes’ basement, putting some finishing touches on one of the experiments they wanted to run the next week in the university lab.

“What is my deal,” Carol nearly screeched. “What is your deal? We agreed on this!”

“We agreed on a plan, Carolanne,” Val retorted.

“Not my name.”

“And plans sometimes have to change,” Val ignored her.

“But this one doesn’t,” Carol said, setting her jaw and Val knew she was in for a fight.

“It does.”

“It does not!”

“Jesus fuck, what is your hard-on for control?” Val threw up her hands. “We are moving to the same goal, Blondie, why are you fighting me so hard?”

Carol glared across the couch. “I just think that I deserve to be heard.”

 _Woah. That’s bigger than_ \- You didn’t grow up with Jacinda Rhodes as your mother without learning some basic emotional intelligence and all of Val’s sensors were going off.

“What the fuck is going on in your brain?” Val said.

Okay, so maybe she didn’t learn _all_ the emotional intelligence lessons.

“What does that mean?” Carol snapped and started straightening her papers and futzing with her hair and generally shifting into perpetual motion.

“What is your deal with control?”

Carol stilled for a beat and Val knew she hit a nerve.

“That’s it, isn’t it,” Val said, a hint of wonder dropping into her voice. “Because you weren’t this bad when we were growing up. Like, it all changed when your dad ran for Senate, but that was understandable and that has to be a fucking mind fuck, having to be perfect in public all the time, so I didn’t really pay it any mind, but this is you and me and there ain’t any cameras, so what the fuck is your deal?”

Carol didn’t breathe for a second and Val worried she’d pushed a bit too far.

“You aren’t the first one…” Carol said quietly. “Bucky has… Tony’s…” Carol sat back into the couch and picked a spot on the wall to stare at as she continued. “My parents are not thrilled, shall we say, with my recent revelation regarding my sexuality. They tried to blame Tony for putting ideas in my head, but Dad can’t get re-elected without Stark money and Tony made it clear real quick that his father may be a dick, but he wasn’t a homophobe and so Dad needed to step carefully. I am, however, no longer welcome in my home when my mother is around until I am willing to put this lesbian silliness aside, which is why I’ve basically moved in with Tony.”

Carol took a breath and Val noticed her picking at her cuticles as though they were her personal enemies. “Your brother and Bucky have both suggested that I’m trying to control everything else in my life because I feel so unsettled at home because everyone in our generation is a therapist, but I don’t really know how else to be right now. I just need… I just need to get out of the house… I just... “

“Then we’ll get you out of the house,” Val said firmly, tucking all of this information away to process at a later date. “So let’s kick this competition in the ass and get you the fuck to Colorado.”

Carol nodded.

“Although, not sure your lesbian ass is going to like it much better in the Air Force,” Val said with a quirked eyebrow.

“Oh, but I’ve got a uniform kink,” Carol smirked right back, “and a real talent for repression. I’ll fit right in.”

* * *

“So, maybe I don’t hate her.”

The confession cut into the silence of the room, and it’s not like the dudes were super emotional people, but she did kind of expect a response.

“Did you hear me?” Val addressed Bruce and Clint as they played Call of Duty. “I might even like her. She’s hot - obviously - but she’s… Like, she’s ridiculous and anal retentive and has never met a color-coded highlighter she didn’t love, but I get why she’s that way and it’s alright. I guess. Maybe.”

Both boys were silent as the game continued on.

“What?” Val snapped, her tone sharp out of fear she’d said too much.

“Well -”

“Barton,” Bruce said firmly. “Don’t be a dick.”

“I was going to say I was glad she was getting along with her!” Clint protested. “Banner, incoming on your six.”

“Sure,” Bruce responded as he handily dealt with their on-screen enemy.

“I was!”

“Boys,” Val replied. “Do I need to be here for this conversation?”

“Danvers has a stick up her ass, but from the rumors that Pegs hears, there are reasons for it,” Clint supplied. “And we all got our garbage, right?” He took one hand off of his controller and tapped his cochlear implant. “So makes sense that once you learned her garbage, she made more sense to you and you withdrew your claws.”

“When the fuck did you start sounding like a TED talk?” Val replied.

“Since Peggy succumbed to my charms,” Clint replied.

“I still say you brainwashed her,” Bruce said. “What the hell a girl like Peggy sees in such an unwashed miscreant is beyond me.”

“She likes me dirty,” Clint said with an eyebrow waggle and Val threw a pillow at him.

* * *

At the beginning of the year, if you had told Carol she was going to go shopping for a homecoming dress with Valerie Rhodes, you would have been able to knock her over with a feather. If you had told her she’d spend most of the day trying to control her libido over how Val looked in all of the outfits she tried on, she would have also been shocked.

It was possible she was falling for her project partner, but that was out of the realm of possibility - why would someone as sexy and confident as Val want Carol’s repressed, Stepford, baby gay ass? - so it was better for everyone if Carol just focused on having fun with Pepper and Nat and being grateful she got to stare at Val a little.

They tried on dress after dress, pair of shoes after pair of shoes - Pepper was home from college for the weekend had one of their family credit cards and wanted to buy at least one thing for each girl and they’d all learned long ago not to fight Pepper. At one point, Pepper put a tiara on Carol’s head and they all teased her about getting used to it since the rumor was that she’d be homecoming queen.

Plus, there was this moment when she stepped out of the dressing room in the gown she ended up choosing… this moment where Val’s face did a thing.

That moment was pretty great.

* * *

“Twenty bucks,” Tony said, throwing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“Done,” Thor nodded and Steve rolled his eyes.

“You two are not betting on Carol’s sex life,” Steve chastised them.

“No,” his boyfriend corrected, “we’re betting on her _dating_ life.”

Steve rolled his eyes once more and Thor kissed his temple.

“We just want our Carol to be comfortable and happy and it appears Rhodey’s chaotic sister may just be the person to do that, so why are you being so uptight?”

Tony snorted. “I’m surprised your dick fits up his ass with the stick he has up there, Thor, and you’re asking why he’s uptight?”

Steve flushed red and was grateful, as always, that he insisted on sitting in an empty part of the bleachers at all football games because otherwise Tony would have gotten them all arrested for public indecency somehow.

“You two are the worst gossips,” Steve said to them both.

“And you love us,” Tony crooned with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“For my sins,” Steve said with a sigh and Thor pulled him into a kiss.

“God, this game is lasting forever,” Tony whined.

“You just want to mess Buck’s tux up,” Steve grinned.

“My boyfriend is Homecoming King and our friend is his queen. Since I am his true queen, I think I get to wear the crown,” Tony said primly.

“Seems reasonable,” Thor agreed.

“Now, the real question is, what’s Val gonna do when she sees Carol all done up?” Tony said. “And Rogers, you did not place your bet.”

Steve sighed and knew he was defeated. “What’s the stakes again?”

“I have $20 on her dragging Carol to a dark room immediately because I’ve seen our girl already and Val hasn’t,” Tony replied.

“I have $20 on Val retraining herself because I think she knows Carol well enough that Carol wouldn’t want a scene,” Thor responded.

Steve nodded. “I’ll put $20 on both of you being wrong and Carol making the first move because I’ve seen Val.”

The other two pressed him for details, but Steve just ate another mouthful of popcorn and smirked.

* * *

Homecoming at Granite Park was a deal, largely because their football team had only recently been successful. The dance and the trappings were really all they had to celebrate. Bucky had been doing a yeoman’s job on the team before his injury, but everyone knew that the dance was the best part. The gym was decked out in the school colors. Darcy - in her mascot costume - was roving around for pictures. The band - Quill & The Guardians - were cranking out fun dance hits from the 1980s, but Val was ready for the DJ to take over so it would all be less Air Supply and a little more Rhianna.

In other words, it was a standard homecoming dance. Val’s dress was a bit itchy, but she couldn’t get the look on Carol’s face when she had tried it on out of her mind. The idea that there might be a play there - even for just a hook-up once the whole competition thing was over - was enough to keep Val from fiddling with the sequins.

“You look like a disco ball,” Carol said quietly as Pepper went to make sure there were shoes that would go with Val’s ensemble.

“Is that-”

“It’s a good thing,” Carol assured her quickly. “You demand attention. You’re not a wallflower like I am, you’re not into blending into the furniture, you want everyone to have a good time and you’re going to make sure that happens. A disco ball is a very important part of a dance.”

Val stared at the girl she was rapidly falling for. “You aren’t furniture, Carol Danvers. Never let your parents tell you otherwise.”

Carol had clearly been about to respond, but Pepper chose that moment to show back up and Val hadn’t been able to get the moment out of her mind since.

So, she was a walking disco ball and Carol looked like she had Kate Middleton’s personal stylist for the night, with her perfectly coiffed hair that made it look like the tiara belonged permanently on top of her head, the black dress with the curved neckline that set off her skin to much that Val was fighting the temptation to lick along the seam.

Val was mentally working up the courage to ask Carol to dance, but then… Then it all happened so fast. One minute, Val was seated at the table with all their friends, watching Bucky and Tony valiantly attempt to dance with Bucky on one crutch and the crown perched precariously on his head. The next?

The next, Thor was tapping her shoulder and gesturing with his head to where Rumlow and some other miscreants had surrounded Carol by the food table. She, Thor, and Steve were on the move before she even knew it. Val did not like how Rumlow was crowding Carol, and she certainly didn’t appreciate when Rollins touched her ass and the closer Val got, she could hear one of the other cretins talking about how they’d turn Carol back to liking dick and then Val saw red.

Some flying fists and loud calls from Mr. Fury and Ms. Hill to break it up and Thor and Steve had their ties off and everyone was getting dragged out of the gym. Once they were in the hallway, Val felt her split lip and looked wildly around for Carol.

Their eyes met and Carol cocked her head towards the training room, just off the gym. They settled onto one of the physical therapy beds after Carol went to get Val an ice pack for her mouth.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Carol replied. “I have to get used to the bullying, I guess, now that… now that everyone apparently knows.”

“I did have to do that,” Val said firmly. “Because first of all, it’s insane that you’re willing to just accept that as though it’s part of the price of being into chicks.”

“I can take care of myself,” Carol said with a firm voice and something in Val’s head clicked.

“But you don’t have to,” Val replied, her tone softening. Carol’s eyes flew to her, full of shock.

Val sighed and winced as her split lip pulled. “My family could give less than four fucks about who I love and whatever, as long as I’m happy. Jimmy’s had my back my whole life, even before Mom and Dad knew, and I’ve never been afraid to be who I was. That’s not your story and I’m sorry.”

Carol waved her hand, as though to brush off Val’s comments, but Val pressed on.

“You’re not a bitch like I thought you were, but you are a fucking badass,” Val’s mouth quirked into a smile and she winced again.

“Stop moving your mouth,” Carol reprimanded and handed her another ice pack.

“I say this now or I chicken out,” Val replied steadily. “I was wrong about you, and I made those first few weeks together more complicated than they needed to be. You’re a goddamn queen, Danvers, and I’m glad I know you.”

There was a moment of silence before Carol replied, “I was wrong about you, too.”

Val looked at her sharply, but kept her mouth shut.

“I thought you were chaos for the sake of it, that you were contrary just to be contrary, and I couldn’t imagine why you enjoyed being such a pain in everyone’s ass,” Carol confessed.

Val laughed. “And now you see why?”

“No,” Carol smiled softly. “I see that you don’t actually enjoy it, but growing up in Rhodey’s shadow meant you had to make noise your own way. So, I see you, Valarie Hildagard Rhodes, and I like what I see.”

The moment was heavy, but neither girl moved to break it.

“Blood’s not my kink,” Val finally said. “So when this stops bleeding, I’m going to kiss the hell out of you.”

Carol slowly moved towards Val and brushed her thumb over Val’s cut. “There. All clean.” Then she slid her hand to the back of Val’s neck, and brought their faces together. “You can move your mouth again.”

As their lips slid together, Val’s breath caught ever so slightly. She was dizzy and overwhelmed and slightly hating herself because all she could think as Carol deepened the kiss was this is right.

**Author's Note:**

> Find Flame on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Stony](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or [Stuckony](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) servers.  
>   
> Find rinn on [Tumblr](http://rinnwrites.tumblr.com) and the [Winteriron discord](https://discord.gg/Ct49uF5) <3


End file.
